Great Cities Through Travelers' Eyes

by Peter Furtado (Editor)

A wide-ranging anthology of travelers’ accounts in thirty-eight of the world’s most fascinating cities, from ancient times through the twentieth century. This entertaining new anthology includes travelers’ tales from thirty-eight cities spread over six continents, ranging from Beijing to Berlin, Cairo to Chicago, and Rio to Rome. The volume features commentators across the millennia, including the great travelers of ancient times, such as Greek geographer Strabo; those who undertook extensive journeys in the medieval world, not least Marco Polo; courageous women such as Isabella Bird and Freya Stark; and enterprising writers and journalists, including Mark Twain. We see the work of famous travelers, but also stories by ordinary people who found themselves involved in remarkable situations, like the medieval Chinese abbot who was shown around the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris by the king of France. Some of the writers seek to provide a straightforward, accurate description of all they have seen, while others concentrate on their subjective experiences of the city and encounters with the inhabitants. Introduced and contextualized by bestselling historian Peter Furtado, each account provides both a vivid portrait of a distant place and time and an insight into those who journeyed there. The result is a book that delves into the splendors and stories that exist beyond conventional guidebooks and websites. 39 illustrations

Genres: Travel, History, Nonfiction, Unfinished, Memoir

408 pages, Hardcover

Published September 3, 2019

Reviews

[Ian Laird · Rating 2 out of 5]

Scandalous - he left out Melbourne.

[Dee · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, I hoped for more from this, which is probably on me. This book does exactly what it says on the tin: it's a collection of excerpts from visitors to various great cities throughout history. There is no analysis, and quite minimal context given on the cities (about 2-3 paragraphs of overall history) and the visitor authors (dates, plus a few sentences of information). Cities are included in alphabetical order, and the excerpts in chronological order.

All of these things make sense, but give me no extra insight. I found myself yearning for greater analysis and discussion, or even cannier curation. (For instance, put the Grand Tour cities/excerpts together and give me a sense of the wild privilege but also discovery of these travellers.) Give me a little discussion on overall trends in travelling / publishing / thinking about the rest of the world. (There's a little bit of this in the introduction, but that's a long way away from most of the text.)

As a final gracenote of grumpy, while there are certainly non-Western excerpts included, the vast majority are Western Europe, especially British, or American authors. So there's a bit of exoticism-ick in the overall vibe of breathless wonders or unthinking colonial superiority. (The editor flags this, overall in the intro, and in the notes on the excerpts, but it's still... unfortunate.) I particularly found this wearying for the entries on Sydney - three Brits and an American, despite modern Australia being a country built on huge waves of diverse immigration. No immigrant memoirs? None?

So in the end, while there were lots of interesting little bits and pieces here and there, I found myself asking often - and certainly asking at the end - what is the point of this book?

[Dr G · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointment, I would have to say. There seems almost to have been an editorial decision to include one piece from any writer who had visited, and written about, one of the cities. Very few of the accounts contained much that was interesting. I suppose the greater successes were the pieces on cities I had visited myself, so that there was some point of reference.

[David Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Throughout history, intrepid men and women have related their experiences and perceptions of the world's great cities to bring them alive to those at home. The thirty-eight cities covered in this entertaining anthology of travellers' tales are spread over six continents, ranging from Beijing to Berlin, Cairo to Chicago, Lhasa to London, St Petersburg to Sydney and Rio to Rome.

This volume features commentators across the millennia, including the great travellers of ancient times, such as Strabo and Pausanias; those who undertook extensive journeys in the medieval world, not least Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta; courageous women such as Isabella Bird and Freya Stark; and enterprising writers and journalists including Mark Twain and Norman Lewis. We see the world's great cities through the eyes of traders, explorers, soldiers, diplomats, pilgrims and tourists; the experiences of emperors and monarchs sit alongside those of revolutionaries and artists, but also those of ordinary people who found themselves in remarkable situations, like the medieval Chinese abbot who was shown round the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris by the King of France himself.

Some of the writers seek to provide a straightforward, accurate description of all they have seen, while others concentrate on their subjective experiences of the city and encounters with the inhabitants. Introduced and contextualized by bestselling historian Peter Furtado, each account provides both a vivid portrait of a distant place and time and an insight into those who journeyed there. The result is a book that delves into the splendours and stories that exist beyond conventional guidebooks and websites."

-From the synopsis on the paperback book's back cover

3.5 Stars * Great Cities Through Travelers' Eyes * Read in Saudi Arabia and Rome, Italy (January 2023)

[Dave Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a curative to break up my natural inclination to concentrate on "serious" reading, my daughters have the tendency of purchasing books that distract me from my "important" or "official" consumption.

Such is the case with "Great Cities Through Traveler's Eyes" which my daughter Eleanor bought me for Christmas.

Knowing how much I yearn to travel but unable to do so because of my current career commitments and without knowing we'd all be grounded from pleasure travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this compendium of observations by seasoned adventurers to mostly far away (and some close to home) great cities from antiquity to the present has served as a lovely read-out-loud distraction for the few minutes a day I carve out for myself to pleasure read.

Each city is one where, on some occasion or another I have pushed a pin into a map with a promise to one day to visit. That promise may not soon be realized but, at least for a few moments each day, I could transport myself beyond this place of self isolation and breathe in a different clime and place. It is incredibly therapeutic.

Now, as time allows, back to the serious reading as I dive into the writings of Swedish author Selma Lagerlof, the recipient of the 1909 Nobel Prize for Literature and the first woman and Swede to garner the honor.

[Mark Farley · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a joy this was to read.

The last two thousand years have produced some incredible travel writing. From aristocrats to journalists and those who have discovered entire continents.

I'm not a great rural adventurer. I don't drive and I don't like wasting time sitting on a beach or throwing up outside a club in Benidorm at 4am. Farley likes himself a city. Just drop him off at the airport and I will do the rest with ease.

Fortunately, Peter Furtado's excellent compilation has you and me covered when it comes to first hand accounts of some of the biggest and beautiful cities out there. Each chapter is a different part of the world with a large urban population, bags of history and architecture. But more importantly, shit to do.

Set out in chronological order, we see the earliest musings of New York, Florence and Berlin (to name just a few) up to present day. Be prepared to feel each journey of how each destination has grown over time. Just a brilliant idea and was especially drawn to the places I have visited and (thanks to this), now have a few more I would like to experience.

It's extensive, fascinating and just a little glorious.

[fern · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I loved the historical accounts from this book. I wish we had gotten a little more versatility in the stories. I need my interest was most peaked when we got incredibly controversial, unique, or intriguing povs. For example, learning about a city in China (I can’t remember right now unfortunately) through someone learning about the opioid crisis and its effectiveness was enthralling! Or Richard Kipling HATE for Chicago was so funny to read about. I wish we had more of those stories to balance out the accounts that were purely descriptive. Either way- every account was nice to read about it but without the more obscure and unique point of views some chapters could feel a tad bit repetitive or droning. It was still a very wonderful way though to find and learn more about cities- especially like two or theee of these I’d never even heard about that I’m now much more inclined to look into and learn about!

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

What you get out of this book will, even more than usual, depend on what you go into it expecting. If you're looking for a thoroughly researched and curated collection of historical travel writing, then you'll probably rate it highly. On the other hand, if like me you went into it hoping to read something that would stoke your desire as a traveler to see these Great Cities for yourself, you may close the book feeling a touch let down. I recognize and value the immense editorial work that Mr. Furtado clearly put into his work, and having read it (or at least most of it; I must admit I skipped some of the chapters that least interested me personally, like Moscow, Samarkand, and a few others), I will now seek out some more contemporary travel writing geared to the sensibilities of a modern traveler such as myself.

[Cem Yüksel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although there is a tangible effort behind to collect the excerpts from travellers about the cities , it does not give the feeling of connections with the cities or the traveller as it is just a page, sometimes just sentences about how a part of city, voyage , day seem. The older cities and traveller’s notes from a some centuries ago are more interesting . When it comes to new cities and recent travels in last two centuries , it gets a bit dull.

[Andrea Engle · Rating 4 out of 5]

An alphabetically-arranged gazetteer, this volume covers famous cities from Alexandria through London and Madrid to Washington, D.C. By chronologically listing the excerpts from travelogues, letters, diaries, etc., by novelists, historical personages, and simple travelers, a sense of history emerges.

[Abhïshék Ghosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had imagined the book to be more of a breeze - however it is much more academic than what the title suggests. Many of the stories are quite arcane - and written with very specific references by travellers from millennia past, which at least to me as a lay reader, makes for tedious reading. Happy to have picked this up at Hatchards (the oldest bookstore in London) nevertheless!

[John Benson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting collection of writings by various authors through the centuries about 39 different cities. Each city had from 3 to 10 entries. It was interesting to see the changes over time, however, my biggest disappointment was how few entries were from the 20th and 21st Centuries, so it was hard to get a good description of the current cities.

[Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was an enjoyable read and i liked imagining all the cities Furtado was describing, especially the ones I’d been to myself. I didn’t feel like I got much out of this book, except a desire to travel and explore more of the world. Although maybe that was the aim of the book after all.

[Emma 旅行 · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's "great cities through different ages, at different periods in history".
Some of the selected writings are from famous writers (like Twain, Wilde, Lawrence).
Very insightful, and such a fun way to see those cities through their eyes - like time traveling.

[Saima · Rating 2 out of 5]

The entry about Pushkin is interesting.

[Tom Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very entertaining; a wonderful gathering of views of quite an assortment of cities.

The varying styles, biases and priorities of the many contributors makes for entertaining reading.

[Connor White · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not finished, but I've done all the hopping around that I care to do at this time.

[Syaffana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not what I wanted to read but the historical facts and travel journals from centuries ago weren't enough to entice me either.

[Kaitlyn Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

So interesting. So many new cities to add to the bucket list.